Saban attempted bring Sentai to America with… “Bioman”?

It’s no secret that Power Rangers started with the adaptation of Zyuranger in 1993. It’s pretty common knowledge for fans that, originally, Saban wished to adapt Jetman.

Thanks to this online publishing of an 1986 article from The Los Angeles Times, it looks like Saban had wanted to bring the franchise to America years before, adapting Bioman.

Bio-Man and his squad were in danger. This time, however, their fate wasn’t resting in the hands of Zadar, the evil half-human, half-robot thug who wants to conquer the world, but two actors’ unions and a coalition of television producers locked in tense contract negotiations.

If the actors struck, Saban Productions of Studio City probably would have blown its deadline for producing the pilot for its proposed “Bio-Man” space adventure series about five kids with identical “bio-rhythms” who defend Earth against Zadar’s attacks.

Outside of various subtitled series airing in Hawaii, the first mainstream english version of a Super Sentai series was Dynaman for USA Network. While Bioman followed Dynaman in Japan, this adaptation would have actually preceded (and likely blocked) Dynaman from being released.

So, that’s another chunk of Power Ranger history we’ll never see.

This post was written by Chad Bonin

Tags: Choudenshi Bioman, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Saban Brands

Posted in Genre, News